


Pendants and Dragons

by YellingAtPlants



Category: Merlin - Fandom
Genre: Aithusa is a little shit, Arthur Knows About Merlin's Magic (Merlin), Arthur’s pendant thing from the Lancelot episode, M/M, Merlin's Magic Revealed (Merlin), arthur has some revelations, merlin is so done with her, yeah I made an entire fic about it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-07
Updated: 2020-06-07
Packaged: 2021-03-04 07:40:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,750
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24579970
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/YellingAtPlants/pseuds/YellingAtPlants
Summary: Arthur notices that his pendant has gone missing.Said pendant leads to feelings, dragons and magic. Maybe it wasn’t so bad if Merlin stole it
Relationships: Aithusa & Arthur Pendragon (Merlin), Aithusa & Merlin (Merlin), Merlin & Arthur Pendragon (Merlin), Merlin/Arthur Pendragon (Merlin)
Comments: 10
Kudos: 282





	Pendants and Dragons

**Author's Note:**

> I have no excuse for this. I just noticed that the pendant had gone after that episode,, and so now there’s an entire fic about it 
> 
> I wrote this at four am yesterday. Safe to say it definitely isn’t proofread

Arthur was confused when his pendant went missing. He’d worn the crystal on a leather necklace as long as he could remember, and then it had just vanished? Is that what his idiot manservant really wanted him to believe? 

No, Arthur soon figured out he was just covering for himself. Merlin wasn’t as subtle as he thought, and Arthur cared more than given credit for, so eventually, to the prince’s shock, he discovered that Merlin was wearing it. 

When Merlin had been injured in the battle for Ealdor, jumping in front of the bolt aimed for Arthur’s heart, Gaius had removed his tunic and neckerchief to examine the wound allowing Arthur to spot his missing pendant settled comfortably against a pale chest. He had blinked stupidly for a few moments, his brain refusing to comprehend that his clumsy oaf of a manservant had hidden it from him the entire time, but when he came back to himself he discovered a similar expression of shock on the court physicians face. 

He’d been ushered from the room moments later, leaving him without the chance to even consider asking Gaius anything. 

***  
Soon, he also discovered the comfort element to the pendant.  
Arthur had been reading reports when he noticed that Merlin’s usual incessant chattering had stopped. But he didn’t glance up, despite pausing in his reading to better listen. The manseravnts breathing had picked up, and unless Arthur was mistaken, he was crying. The Prince really should pay better attention to the man, for he had not the slightest of clues as to what had him so distressed. But, before he offered any words of comfort, he noticed that Merlin’s hand was pressed on his chest, just under his stupid neckerchief he insisted on wearing.  
Right on the crystal pendant. 

Although Arthur was shocked, he was also relieved when Merlin seemed to steel himself again, scrubbing more fiercely at the chain links of his mail. He intended to ask Merlin about what had occurred to make him so unlike himself, but yet again, his father had kept him occupied the entire day, meaning he’d had no spare time to think about thieving manservants or crystal pendants.  
Meaning he didn’t remember the next day, or the next. In fact, he had put aside all thoughts of unfairly cute manservants and stolen crystals for weeks on end. 

***  
Until it was thrown violently back into his face. 

“Balinor... Please... Don’t go?” Merlin sounded so small, that Arthur’s heart broke with him. Over the few days they had stayed with the dragon Lord, he and Merlin had grown close. Close enough, in fact, that Balinor had just saved Merlin’s life by taking a bandits sword through his chest. Arthur was forced to pull him away, his servant kicking out at him with shocking strength. The further the Prince pulled him, however, the more his efforts weakened, until finally Merlin grew still, going slack in Arthur’s grip, leaving him to carry the man to somewhere safe to stop and rest a moment. They had to make it back to Camelot and warn his father that the last dragon Lord was dead, but in this state, Merlin wasn’t fit to go anywhere. He’d settled the raven haired against a tree and headed to look for their horses. He returned with both, but Merlin didn’t even seem to notice him, his hand wrapped tightly around a familiar red crystal. This time, Arthur didn’t flinch away from the knowledge, he instead moved closer, and unable to help himself now that he could see how pained Merlin’s eyes were, he wrapped his arms tightly around the smaller and pulled him tightly to his chest, allowing him a moment of weakness to collect himself. Merlin was no knight, he should not have to lose his friends. But Merlin had lost the most of all of them, and Arthur knew it. He petted his hair gently for a few moments and then pushed him away slightly, instead closing his slender fingers more firmly around the crystal. Merlin blinked at him, shock clear in his watery eyes, and Arthur couldn’t help an ill timed chuckle. 

“Honestly Merlin. Theft? From the Prince of Camelot? I would have thought even you knew better.” It was clearly the right thing to say, because then Merlin was laughing wetly, his shoulders shaking with it, and Arthur decided he much preferred it when Merlin was happy. He didn’t speak another word of it, instead only pushing Merlin’s hand closer to his chest so that he received the message properly. The crystal was his, no matter the manner of how he acquired it.  
Besides, Arthur found he quite liked the red on him. 

***  
With the death of Lancelot, Merlin became a shadow of himself. Often, the knights would find him sat in the armory, staring far away, his hand still on the armour he’d been cleaning. There had been servant’s who had found him sleeping at desks and in rooms he’d been serving, and even, one time, when Arthur found him in his bed. The King said nothing of it, going back to his reports, and when Merlin eventually rolled onto the floor, startling himself awake and blinking open eyes filled with unshed tears, Arthur was unsurprised to see him grasp at the crystal he wore. Lancelots death had hit them all hard, but Merlin the most of all, and Arthur figured he should allow him a break. He proposed the idea to him, however, and was quickly shot down, his manservant insisting he was fine and fit to work. 

If he also slept in Arthur’s bed each afternoon when his chores were done, no more need to be said of it. 

***  
Arthur was shocked that the girl Merlin had been meeting in the woods was a dragon, but it made sense in the end. Merlin had seemed giddy over the few weeks Arthur had observed his odd behaviour, with more of a spring in his step than usual.  
Because apparently the birth of a dragon was a cause for celebration. 

However, the more the King watched his manservant play with her, letting the dragon chase him and land on him, then doing the same, the King realised he didn’t want either of them dead. This pure dragon was a symbol to him. A sign, that maybe he should see past his father’s mistakes. 

“Aithusa!! Give that back this instant!” indignant yelling caught his attention, and he found the dragon had hold of the pendant necklace, clamped between two sharp teeth. Unless he was mistaken, the dragon was grinning, her scales shimmery under the moon. Arthur chuckled at the sight of Merlin wrestling with a baby for the Kings crystal pendant.  
Utterly ridiculous, and not at all sweet.

***  
He refused to acknowledge the dragon until a few weeks later. There was a raid on their camp as they slept, and Arthur knew that snowy menace lived in these caves somewhere. The issue being, he didn’t know how to ask Merlin to call his pet dragon to deal with the bandits.  
Merlin solved that. 

“I’m going to go relieve myself. Try not to die.” He whispered, dissappearing down the tunnels. Arthur held back a chuckle, realising those tunnels definitely didn’t lead towards the exit of the cave. They led deeper, where Aithusa lived. The king and the young dragonet had come to a sort of agreement, and although Arthur knew she couldn’t really understand him, he often found himself sneaking out at night to visit the youngling. She’d grown quite large, and Arthur had helped her find a new home here, in the bigger caverns. He listened to the sounds of dragon roars and men yelling, and chuckled to himself. 

Relieving himself indeed.

***  
Aithusa had introduced herself formally to the knights of the round table barely two days later. She, clearly forgetting that she was supposed to be dead, had come bounding into their camp like an eager puppy one night while they were hunting. Forced to react like he didn’t know her, Arthur watched as the dragon decided the effort was far too bothersome and she simply sat in a tree and watched them while the King tried to justify not killing her. Luckily for the dragonet, the knights had no urge to extinct a species. And so the knights of the round table, a servant and a dragon had sat around the fire. 

Arthur’s heart felt warm, and he didn’t think it was just the dragon spread across his lap, snoring away. 

***  
The day Merlin revealed his magic to him, a lot of things suddenly made sense to Arthur.  
There had always been something different about his servant, and as he listened to Merlin ramble on about cryptic dragons and riddles he couldn’t solve, he realised he’d always known. Maybe he hadn’t always understood, but deep down, he would never allow any harm to come to Merlin.

“Merlin, with all due respect, please shut up.” And for once in his life, he did, wide blue eyes fixed on the king with a terror in them that never belonged. One shaking, pale hand clutched the crystal in a familiar motion of comfort, and Arthur smiled involuntarily at the sight. He took one step forward and stopped, leaving Merlin plenty of space to run.

“I’m not condemning you for who you are, Merlin. To me, you’re still a completely useless manservant. I’m sorry you didn’t feel like you could trust me, but I don’t think I would have trusted me either. This knowledge, it is both a gift and a curse. One you should not have to bear the burden of alone.” Arthur took the last step between them, removing the gap, and Merlin didn’t pull away. His shaking sorcerer stepped into the embrace, clutching at Arthur’s back with hands that trembled, tears dampening the Kings tunic. Tears of relief, of pain, of a secret shared.

Neither spoke for a while, but when they did, they told each other everything, from feelings to magic, to knights and Dragons and friends.

“No more secrets.” Whispered Arthur, his palm on his friends face.

“No more secrets.” The warlock muttered back after a moment, his eyes flashing gold and lighting the room in a soft blue glow.

Beneath the light of one thousand hovering stars, Arthur wrapped Merlin’s fingers around a red crystal pendant. One that meant so much more than it once had.

Red against pale fingers, their symbol of peace rested between them.

**Author's Note:**

> As always I love to hear from you ❤️


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